In Part 1 of this two-part series, “What Will the Resurrected Nature of Christians Be Like?”, we focused on three characteristics: (1) the resurrected body will be the same and different from the body we now have, (2) the body and soul will be reunited at the resurrection, and (3) the resurrected body is a physical body.
- Holy: Our resurrected body will be absent from the effects of sin and perfect in every way.
Revelation 21:22-23, 27: 22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
To say that something or someone is “holy” is to say that they are “set apart.” The word “holy” might conjure up images of your grandmother’s fine china (delicate and ornate, but rather impractical, and somewhat dusty); however, this is not how holiness is described in the Scriptures. God’s holiness is beautiful, pure, and engaged in his creation. His holiness entered our realm in the person of Jesus and makes unholy humanity holy, through uniting believers to himself.
When John describes the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21, he says in verse 27 that “nothing unclean will ever enter it.” When Christ returns, we will be holy in every way, and this holiness extends to our physical bodies.
- Glorious: Our resurrected body will be glorious, fully and completely reflecting the glory of God.
Philippians 3:20-21: 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
In the letter to the Philippians, Paul gives us a promise that Jesus’s followers can bank on. When Christ returns, we will receive a glorious new body. This body will be full of splendor. It will be radiant. We will share in the glory of Christ, who became our servant, was vindicated through his resurrected and exaltation, and to whom every knee will bow (Philippians 2:5-11).
- Imperishable: Our resurrected body will live forever and never suffer decay.
1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-43: 35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
Paul uses the image in 1 Corinthians 15 of a kernel of wheat or grain that falls to the ground and dies. This is like our bodies, which eventually descends to the grave. But Paul goes on to say that just as a seed dies and then sprouts to life, so our physical bodies will be resurrected to new life, and—even better than grain—our new physical bodies will be imperishable. They will never suffer decay or death again. No need for wrinkle creams, hospital beds, or doctors’ offices in the New Creation.
A Profound Promise
The hope of resurrection offers a profound comfort to those who belong to Jesus Christ. Consider what it means: the end of decay and death for those united to Christ through faith. If you are struggling with aging or illness, one day it will come to an end–forever! Let the hope of Jesus’ resurrection shape the way you encounter inevitable hardships now and in the days to come. “We do not grieve as those who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Death, where is your victory?